Monday, May 31, 2010

Some local dude is selling his classic Masters of the Universe He-Man and Skeletor playsets on eBay! The He-Man set is going for $1,500 and includes Stratos, He-man with Battle Cat, Man-at-arms, Orko, Teela, Ram-Man, Man-E-Faces, BuzzOff, Socceress and Castle Grayskull. Damn, I used to have all of them!

People in China have an alternative to the expensive iPad. The iPed also known as the APad (I know it's confusing) looks similar to the iPad and it is now available in Shenzhen, China. Powered by an Intel chip, the multi-media devide runs on Google's open source operating system Android and costs only US$105.

Reading Jan's blog post about his Panini World Cup 2010 stickers collection made me remember the time when I used to collect the World Cup stickers as a kid. Now he only needs 2 more to complete the book! He writes: "This year's version of anti-german voodoo was to stick them into the album upside down, instead of painting hitler mustaches on them." I hope that works.

Igor has more that 100 projects in his graphic design portfolio but I love his Jacket + Bookmark creations the most. He writes: "I wonder it would be great if we can use dust jackets and bookmarks together to create a unique image of a paper book." Very, very clever Igor!

For his sculpture class, Everfalling made a bronze statue inspired by the game Katamari Damacy and the image of Atlas holding the world on his shoulders. The Katamari is designed to balance on the back and arms of the Prince. The two pieces are not welded together. Good news is that he is planning to make copies of the statue to sell!

Marcos started a photo-journey with his toys 2 years ago. Now you can buy his original digital photographs in limited editions. My favourite is Recession Army Clone Vet: "Economic downturn hit everyone on the past year, and the clone troopers are just another victim of the hard times. Replace by CGI and animations many of them didn't have other choice but to hit the streets."

Digital artist Alex Varanese should do a whole game based on his new stop motion video game experiment. He writes: "I recently found myself wondering what a video game might look like in the form of a stop motion animation. This is the result."

The NotePod Writing App Pad comes in two sizes and looks like the iPad and its smaller cousin, the iPhone. It even matches the bezel of the two devices! Perfect for those of you who still prefer to write on paper (and kill tress), the NotePod comes with 100 pages.

Martin Refsal's funny guide to Pac-Man Ghosts was done to celebrate the 30th birthday of Pac-Man. He writes: "It features the ghosts you’re all familiar with, plus some exotic species like the Dwight Schrute ghost and the notorious Kim Jong-Il ghost."

Motivated by the need to eat sushi while on the go, Evan Kaye wanted to develop some sort of packaging to make this possible. His first idea was to use a device with a wind up wheel, similar to that used for deodorant sticks. His invention became known as the Sushi Popper.

Peter Serafinowicz, a celebrated writer, director and actor reveals why he downloads things illegally. He writes: "My web team asked me if I would like them to hunt down and put and end to the torrents to The Peter Serafinowicz Show. I said no because the show is still relatively unknown and I'd like as many people to see it as possible. In fact, I've used the torrents myself when I haven't had a copy to hand."

The Pop World Cup 2010 is a tournament to find the world’s greatest pop nation. 64 matches showcasing pop from 32 nations. Every participant gets to manage a country by choosing MP3s to represent them. Readers vote on which MP3s are the best and offer comments box commentary. The winning countries progress through the tournament to the final.

The Hobbit is a fantasy novel and children's book by J. R. R. Tolkien. It was published on 21 September 1937. Tokien then went on to write the sequel, The Lord of the Rings. Here's the first Soviet edition of The Hobbit with illustrations made by a local artist. Yes, that's Bilbo Baggins on the cover.

Thursday, May 27, 2010

Meet 2 year old Ardi from Musi Banyuasin, Indonesia. He's got a shocking habit that no other normal kids his age have. He smokes. And not just one stick a day but 40! Yup, WTF! If he doesn't smoke, he cries and throws tantrums. Watch the video above of him smoking. Makes me sick. And I smoke! Seriously, there's something just not right about the boy. I think there's an adult man in his body.

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Watch this interesting interview of Grace Quek better known by her stage name Annabel Chong. Born and raised in Singapore, Grace set the world record by having sex with 251 men in 10 hours in the US in 1995. She is now living in the US, working as a web developer.

Saturday, May 15, 2010

Last Saturday, Discovery Channel organised a very special ghost investigation event together with Singapore Paranormal Investigators to promote their new show Ghost Lab. The ghost investigation was held at Bukit Batok Nature park. A young lady while jogging in the park was gang raped and she died on the eve of Valentine's Day 2001. Klik.TV joined the investigation to find out if the ghost of the lady still roams the park. Watch the video on Klik.TV.

I've been on ghost hunts in the past but nothing like this. We even caught something alright! Is it the ghost of the lady? I don't know. There were indeed lots of strange things happening that night that I couldn't explain. Battery drain, lights not working, strange static noise on the CCTV, walkie talking not working, unusual noise and footsteps and even a white mist/figure! Spooky!

Narrated by Mike Rowe, Ghost Lab follows and stars ghost-hunting brothers Brad and Barry Klinge, who founded Everyday Paranormal (EP), a paranormal investigation team whose stated mission is to "visit the most haunted places in America, find evidence, and test new theories to probe the existence of the afterlife" using a fringe-scientific approach. You can catch Ghost Lab every Thursday at 2200 hrs (10:00 pm SIN/HK) on Discovery Channel.

Special thanks to Discovery Channel, SPI, Jocelyn for helping me out with the lighting and Kino for being a very brave girl. You rock!

Update: Photos taken at the event can be found at SPI's forum site. I posted two of them below.

Friday, May 14, 2010

Check out Maxim's 2010 Hot 100, the definitive list of the world's most beautiful women. The folks from Maxim are confident that this list will stand as testament to their mad eye for hot chicks. Hmmm. I'm not sure I agree with their list but you'll definitely find lots of hotties there including Transformers babe Megan Fox who is at number 5.

I'm not sure you know this but there is an Alice in Wonderland pornographic musical comedy made in 1976. In this x-rated version, Alice offends her would-be lover William by rejecting his advances. Upset, she falls asleep reading Alice in Wonderland. The white rabbit appears in a dream and takes her into a sexual wonderland. Must go find and download!

Over at his Flickr photoset, Kevin Dooley posts pictures of album covers from his impressive record collection. Here is the cover for Mickey Mouse Disco, an album released by Disneyland Records in 1979 containing disco-fied versions of Disney classics and Disney-fied versions of disco classics.

I'm downloading Cory Doctorow's latest book, For The Win into my iPhone. From the book's description: "Millions of people around the globe are engrossed in multiplayer online games, questing and battling to win virtual gold, jewels, and precious artifacts. Meanwhile, others seek to exploit this vast shadow economy, running electronic sweatshops in the world’s poorest countries, where countless 'gold farmers' harvest virtual treasure for their employers to sell to First World gamers who are willing to spend real money to skip straight to higher-level gameplay."

Dude says, "I like to have fun with graphic design, logos, layout and such. I'm also a big fan of parody and so mixing in the two in some fun practice is something I quite enjoy." Enjoy his Flickr collection of famous logos in Courier font. Boy, that font is ugly!

If you need to walk around in a sleeping bag, then the Musuc Bag is just for you, if you don't mind looking silly. It is the first sleeping bag with arms and legs that allow you to walk around without getting out of your sleeping bag. It also features ventilation zips on the legs and pockets to keep your MP3 player.

Star Wars X-Wing Fighter Model is 9" long and comes fully painted. Assembly required. Just break the parts out of the plastic sprue and then snap them together. Cockpit opens to reveal tiny Luke Skywalker. Also comes with a removable R2-D2.

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Watch this video of CP Biggest Eater Competition 2010 that I took on Sunday at Bishan Junction 8 for Klik.TV. Professional eaters Juliet Lee, Joey Chestnut and Takeru Kobayashi battled it with local competitors to find out who can eat the most CP Foods Shrimp Wonton in 8 mins. Oh, don't forget to check out Kobayashi's abs!

"What reason?" I said. "How could there be a reason? You died mum. You were taken away from me. You were the only person I think of everyday since you were gone. You died. You lost everything and I lost everything. I lost my mum."

She took my hands. "No, you didn't. I was right here. And you loved me anyway. Lost love is still love. It takes a different form, that's all. You can't see their smile or bring them food or tousle their hair or move then around a dance floor. But when those senses weaken, another heightens. Memory. Memory becomes your partner. Your nurture it. You hold it. You dance with it."

"Life has to end," she said. "Love doesn't."

I thought about the years after I buried my mum. It seems like only yesterday. It was like looking over a fence. I remembered my mum told me when I was a little boy, of another kind of life out there, even as I knew I would never be a part of it.

"It is so unfair mum. You shouldn't have gone," I said quietly.

"I know," she said.

"I miss you so much."

"I know." She nodded. "I felt it."

"Here?" I asked.

"Even here," she said smilingly. "That's how strong lost love can be."

She stood and opened a door, and I blinked as I entered behind her. It was a dimply lit room. There was no ceiling, only glittering stars above us.

"I was saving this one," she said.

She held out her arms. It was a small white tube that is roughly around a meter in length. The words EduScience was written on it. A telescope! It was the first telescope that my mum bought for me back then I was 12.

"I thought I will never get to see it again," I said.

"Well, you thought wrong. You did get to see me," she said.

"I never said this to you before mum but thanks. Thanks for the telescope. Without it, I will never have loved astronomy this much. You know after your death, every night when I looked up at the night sky and gazed at the stars, it brought me closer to you. Real close. It's like you were there, looking down back at me."

She took a moment and then she changed. The web of lines beside her eyes, the thinner hair, the looser skin beneath her chin. She smiled and I smiled and she was to me, as beautiful as ever, and I closed my eyes and said for the first time what I'd been feeling from the moment I saw her again: "I don't want to go on. I want to stay here with you mum."

When I opened my eyes, my arms still held her shape but she was gone, and so was everything else...

Ferrari's unique solution to the ban on tobacco advertising is to create a sneaky but clever red, black and white barcode-like design resembling the packaging of Marlboro on the canopy of their vehicle, as well as on the uniforms of drivers Fernando Alonso and Felipa Massa.

I really like the idea of Twaggies. It was started by a couple of peeps who met via tweets. They look for the most interesting tweets on Twiiter and then illustrate them for free! This one is an illustration of LunaticOnEdge's tweet: "I'm just one bad relationship away from owning 30 cats." Brilliant!

In Cursed Treasure: Don't Touch My Gems you have to protect your gems from being stolen by “good” heroes. Try to annihilate them before they grab a gem, but even if they do, you’ll have a chance to annihilate them on their way back and you’ll save the gem. I'm a big fan of tower defence games and this is probably one of the best that I've played.

Please help send DJ Carlito to Malaysia and Singapore to complete a project that has been almost 10 years in the making! He is hoping to secure $3500 in funds. His aim is to create a compilation CD that will re-release hits by dozens of vintage Malaysian Pop (a.k.a. Pop Yeh Yeh) artists of the 1960s and ’70s.

Friday, May 07, 2010

This is really great news for football fans in Singapore. We waited long enough. Starhub and Singtel have just announced that they have finally secured the broadcast rights to the 2010 FIFA World Cup to be held in South Africa and will offer all 64 matches live!

Both Starhub and Singtel are offering identical World Cup packages: Early Bird Price at $70.62 which is valid till 31 May 2010 and the usual price of $94.16 for those who subscribe from 1 June to 11 July. Both are also in discussions with MediaCorp to offer the live broadcast of FIFA World Cup matches via MediaCorp’s free-to-air channels.

So are you guys subscribing? For me, I don't know. I guess I will still be watching some games online using P2P or I will head out to pubs, cafes, etc if I'm watching with my mates. And I heard Mustafa and Sheng Siong are selling antennae boosters at around S$20! There are always cheaper alternatives. Heh!

Oh fyi, I'm rooting for England. I had a dream that they win it this year. Ledley King to score the winner with a thumping header. Come on you Three Lions!

What happens when the OMG cat watches the video of a man standing on top of a moving MRT train? Watch the video on Klik.TV to find out. It's shocking, I know. The original Man on top of MRT train video can be viewed here.

Thursday, May 06, 2010

Dude teaches us how to build an Iron Man Arc Reactor that Tony Stark would be proud of. He writes: "The reactor is attached to an old heart rate monitor strap and it's powered by a 3 volt battery pack that just slips in my jeans pocket. It's light weight and is comfortable to wear for several hours at a time."

I just found out about nebezial's work on Deviant Art today and oh boy, I am very impressed. This guy is one hell of an illustrator. Check out his drawings of He-Man and She-Ra. They are like.. wow! I'm using them for my wallpaper!

The Dollar ReDe$ign Competition wants you to redesign the US Dollar bill in any way you think appropriate. The folks behind the competition are looking for ideas that define or redefine what America stands for. They would like to see how you would best represent that, visually, through the redesign of the US currency.

Recently, Meimi132 visted Cromer, a seaside town where she used to live before moving to Norwich and spotted this Lobster Iron Man statue. Yup, its a cross between Iron Man and a lobster! Apparently, there are 80 of these lobsters around North Norfolk seaside places and other places of interest.

Liana from Star Bakery specialises in creating bespoke design cupcakes. I like her rock band cupcakes that she made for someone's 40th birthday. She writes: "They are chocolate cupcakes topped with peanut butter frosting and handmade sugarpaste toppers incorporating some of the birthday boys favourite bands!"

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

Go download Genetos, a vertical shooter with an "evolution" theme. In Genetos, the levels represent different generations in the evolution of Shoot-em-ups. It's a good free game but only runs on Windows machines.

Dude shows you how to make a credit card grappling hook. All you need is a credit card (preferably an expired one) some simple hardware, fishing line thread, and a sewing machine bobbin. It looks dangerous. I like!

As Seen On

Producer, Director, DP, Editor. Works on documentaries, commercials and branded content. A Spurs fan, experienced astronomer and occasional ITK. I.Z. Reloaded covers news, pop culture, blogs, websites, gadgets, the fascinating and the weird from a Singapore perspective. The blog is a runner up in both the 2006 Weblog Awards (Best Asia Blog) and the 2004 Asia Blog Awards (Best Singapore Blog). Contact him at izreloaded[at]gmail[dot]com.